Top 10 service companies to haggle with

thegirlintheattic · 24 January 2014 at 12:16AM

ultramagnetic_commuter wrote: »

It would be much more informative if you separated existing customers haggling for their existing services with those looking for new services when reporting the discounts people can get. If you read the thread where people discuss SKY deals, it's obvious that SKY do not give out discounts like they used to;they are openly telling customers that (they told me) and are letting them leave. They do offer discounts but not the customer retention deals they used to where you ring up and they give you a discount without any fuss.

Offering *new* products such as the "[FONT=&quot]I've phoned Sky last week, they offered me £1/month line rental for the first 12 months. I was paying BT £13/mth, so the saving was astronomical!" [/FONT]in your article is something completely different. That's being sold a new product on an introductory deal - I wouldn't even consider that as haggling as there are huge introductory discounts when existing customers are taking additional services openly advertised anyway.

We regularly get discounts when calling to cancel services from Sky. Every six months or so we call up saying we would like to drop the movies as we don't really use them, within minutes they offer them free or half price for six months.

MisterD · 28 January 2014 at 4:41PM

I am an existing customer with Plusnet (I have line rental/inclusive calls/broadband) and I'm very happy with their products and service. However, I thought it was time to look around again and see what else was on offer. I checked the Plusnet website and could see they had a deal for new customers showing unlimited broadband for £2.50/month for 12 months if you took line rental at £14.50/month.

I did a really quick check around and saw Tesco Broadband also had a special offer for unlimited broadband with line rental and calls for £20.40/month. The broadband is effectively free for 12 months, then rises in price to the normal month rate.

Ringing Plusnet first line customer support got me nowhere as they were not authorized to give me the £2.50/month deal - it was for new customers only. So I asked for my MAC code and got through to second level customer support to see what they could do.

After highlighting the Tesco offer and threatening to leave right there and then, they did agree to give me the new customer deal for unlimited broadband at £2.50/month for 12 months only. It was described as a "special deal only for a limited number of long time customers" - yeah, yeah, whatever.

So a 10 minute phone call and a bit of negotiating with Plusnet has saved me just about £9/month for my broadband without changing suppliers (or the line rental/inclusive calls parts of my overall package). Perhaps companies have finally changed their attitude and really are doing some small things to try and retain existing customers.

So I'm counting that as a small success.

sjhaggler · 29 January 2014 at 3:46PM

I called Sky yesterday to haggle down our monthly payment. I had looked into Virgin Media and found that by switching I could save £150 per year. We were paying £47 a month, so I called and said I was thinking of leaving to go to Virgin Media and that I wanted to know if there was anything they could do on the price. They offered me a measly £7 per month discount, which would also have locked me into another 12 month contract. I politely declined, said I needed to discuss it with my husband and that I would probably call back later to cancel.

I called Sky again half and hour later and said that I wanted to cancel.They worked some magic and voila, offered me £33 a month for 12 months on the same package - TV, broadband and phone. It just shows by talking to two different people you can get very different results! And I'm £165 better off.

mexicano · 30 January 2014 at 12:04AM

Last month my existing 12 month contracts with Sky and BB and phone with Plusnet were about to expire so I phoned Plusnet who told me that I would revert to £9.99 pm from January.I asked them about the £2.50 pm on offer and was told it was only for new customers so I told them that I was thinking of moving to Sky and was promptly transferred to a very nice gentleman who offered me £2.99 pm, a saving of £84.00, which I graciously accepted

I them phoned Sky and told them I wanted to cancel my subs totalling £32.00 pm and watch Freeview only. I was again transferred to a very nice gentleman and was offered a 75% discount to only £8.00 pm, a saving of £288.00 with no new 12 month contract, which I also graciously accepted. I was also told that if I wanted to take up the movie or sport packages I would be entitled to the same discount.

So I saved a total of £372.00 per annum for both!!!!

:j

I haggled with my building/contents insurance as well and got a discount so I am paying less than last years premium and with the same insurance company.

crystal9 · 30 January 2014 at 11:13AM

mexicano wrote: »

Last month my existing 12 month contracts with Sky and BB and phone with Plusnet were about to expire so I phoned Plusnet who told me that I would revert to £9.99 pm from January.I asked them about the £2.50 pm on offer and was told it was only for new customers so I told them that I was thinking of moving to Sky and was promptly transferred to a very nice gentleman who offered me £2.99 pm, a saving of £84.00, which I graciously accepted

I them phoned Sky and told them I wanted to cancel my subs totalling £32.00 pm and watch Freeview only. I was again transferred to a very nice gentleman and was offered a 75% discount to only £8.00 pm, a saving of £288.00 with no new 12 month contract, which I also graciously accepted. I was also told that if I wanted to take up the movie or sport packages I would be entitled to the same discount.

So I saved a total of £372.00 per annum for both!!!! :j

I haggled with my building/contents insurance as well and got a discount so I am paying less than last years premium and with the same insurance company.

wow what a good deal you got, i just phoned sky as a previous deal had ended which was buy hd channels and get line rental for £2.00 a saving of £13 pm so total was about £54 pm.
when i phoned today all he offered was half price hd total each month was still £63 so told him i would like to cancel now the price pm is £54 (that includes tv entertainment extra,telephone £5,telephone line and broadband
i never seem to get good deals and i cant say i am moving to virgin as its not available in my area

rwgray · 30 January 2014 at 1:46PM

My kids had a little tiff yesterday and smashed up the remote for the Tivo box. It still mostly worked, but it looked like a space-age car wreck. So I called Virgin Media and had a lovely chat with Kevin from Bangalore who arranged to post me a free replacement in the next few days. Result!

While I was on, I happened to mention that my monthly bundle price appeared to have been creeping up - and that's this month's creep was one too far for me. So he put me straight through to his colleague Barry in Madras who couldn't have been more meticulous in dealing with the matter.

Their side of the deal: I'm signed up for another 12 months.
My pay-off: they removed the price hike that all their customers will be hit with about now, and reinstated a small loyalty discount that had recently expired.

Our deal is guaranteed for only six months, but this alone will save me a minimum of £57 - and I didn't have to go out of my way to contact them. Thanks, Kids!

Share and Enjoy. ~ Rich.x

jjchilds · 30 January 2014 at 2:11PM

Dunkydave wrote: »

I have just 'haggled' £10.50 off my monthly line rental charges with Sky by getting through to 'cancellations' and quoting how much cheaper BT was for an equivalent package and saying I was thinking of moving everything to BT. (Which I was!) It is for 9 months, so I'll have to go back and rehaggle in January!

SNAP...just got the same deal myself...Threatened to move to BT

sofaman · 11 February 2014 at 2:12PM

BenefitMaster wrote: »

Lost my job in December (planned end of contract) and haven't walked into another one, so I called Sky today and said "calling to haggle - lost my job but want to stay with you" and exemplified that a new customer would pay nearly £10 less than I am right now for the same package.

Managed to get my cost reduced from an average of £75 to a fixed £56.90 triple play by agreeing to 12 months line rental and broadband, and dropping the TV package down one step. Since I'm completely happy with the telephone and Fibre broadband, a 12 month golden handcuff is painless.

Martin is right, don't be afraid to ask, and, as importantly in my case, don't be afraid to tell the company why you are haggling and beat them down with their own figures.

This haggle saves me over £230 in a year. :j

Glad this worked out ok.

As someone mentioned, I think retention/cancellation depts. are getting wise to this. Your approach, admitting you're actually haggling, may work better. Some people have threatened to leave ISPs (bluff) only to lose their connection!

***Update***

Tried to get a deal with Sky (upgrade normal broadband + line rental to fibre), and they couldn't do any offers.

karrie12 · 12 February 2014 at 7:15PM

I called VM asking what deal they could offer me as my contract had ended. The cost of my service was due to go up by £3 a month to £35.99.

They offered me £28.99 for the first 6 months and then £33.99 for the remaining 6 months.

That's a saving of £54 a year. :beer:

v_Keyser_Soze_v · 13 February 2014 at 6:22PM

Been paying Sky £37 per month for 10 years so finally decided to chance my luck 'cancelling' to get a discount. The chap offered me nothing and confirmed my cancellation request immediately!

Oh well, I'll get myself a Freesat box and save myself £450 a year instead!

Top 10 service companies to haggle with

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